1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to methods and devices for boxing packets of folded box flats automatically.
2. The Prior Art
Box flats, particularly flats which are capable of being folded to form product containers, can be automatically produced by known folding and gluing machines. These flats are generally assembled into stacks or packets. In the past, it has been known to tie these packets, by means of streamers, and to arrange the packets in a container. This has generally been done manually and the tying operation always necessitates the use of special tying machines. In addition to the requirement of special machinery, the streamers must be removed by the user when the box is placed in a boxing machine which required additional handling. Up until now, if it was desired to avoid tying the packets with streamers, the flats for the boxes had to be secured in a stack which was straightened and manually arranged in the shipping container, generally on a sheet of separator paper whose edges are folded back to enable the flats to be removed from the container.
Recently, new machinery and methods have been devised to eliminate the need to handle packets of untied boxes. The packets are pushed horizontally by a ram mechanism into a container which rests on its side. An automatically cut strip of separator paper is also provided at the time the packets are pushed into the container. This method, which in many respects improves upon the prior manual methods has a disadvantage in that if the containers into which the packets are fed are thereafter set upright for transport and storage, the flats contained therein will not rest on a long side or on a comparatively rigid fold side, but may come to rest on an end tongue generally made up of the end of a small flap or tongue which does not always have sufficient strength and resistance to support the weight of the packet or, more particularly, the weight of another layer of packets. Thus, during the shocks of transportation and handling, the individual folded boxes stored in the container can deteriorate which not only damages the flats themselves, but can lead to difficulties in removing the packets of flats from the container. Thus it would be an advance in the art to provide an automatic packaging system for flat folded boxes which packages the flats in a container in a stable support position where they do not lie on an end tongue and in a manner which they are easily removable from the container requiring a minimum of handling both for removal and insertion into an automatic boxing machine.